The Last Guardian is still on track for a 2016 release

E3 2015, the Sony conference. It was alright! But like the other press conferences of that Monday gauntlet, it was one that leaned heavily on nostalgia to win fans over. Final Fantasy, Shenmoomin 3 and other games were proof of this. And then The Last Guardian re-debuted, earning a massive pop from the audience. It’s been almost a year since then. Another year of mostly silence and hush hush development.

Is The Last Guardian ever going to be released? According to game creator Fumito Ueda, yes, yes we are. This year in fact, as he told EDGE via IB Times. As for that release date, Ueda said that he was a mix of excitement and fear over the game finally being released this year:

Since this is the year we will see the game’s release, I do have some worries, but I’m also very excited.

The feature went on to describe the baby kaiju thingy as a “free-spirited creature that flagrantly disregards your attempts to tame it,” which Ueda said  that this was part of the charm of The Last Guardian. “It would be a lie to stay that I have no worries,” Ueda explained.

But another game where you can completely control a creature wouldn’t be enjoyable for me because there are a lot out there where you can do that. I think I’ve had enough of them.

As players progress through The Last Guardian, they’ll be able to build on the relationship between Trico and his pal. Trico’s eyes will also change colour according to his mood such as a pink tinge denotes wariness and anger, for example.” Trico himself is also rather strong, but timid. Ueda said that this enabled Trico to have an ambiguous nature. “This creature isn’t like the cute pets that exist in other games, or an ally that’s really useful,“ Ueda explained.

The role of the creature is ambiguous; that’s something we wanted to express in the game, and it doesn’t always do what you ask it to do. That’s one of the themes of The Last Guardian. It’s something that’s difficult, and completely different. I want to create the next thing – an experience that people have never had before.

The amount of code is very large compared to AI in conventional games. We’ve given this creature its own desires, so depending on what action it wants to take, that affects everything, including its animation. It’s not like a normal humanoid character.

It’s been eight years of development to get The Last guardian this far. Eight years of different platforms, ideas and codes changing hands. Hopefully this year, it’ll all finally pay off.

Last Updated: May 26, 2016